Question about Armor

H

Hump

First time out of the vault
Hello!

I have a question about the armor system in Fallout.
What exactly is Armor Class for?

I found a leather armor, with AC of 25, and a metal armor with AC of just 20, but with much better stats in normal/laser/fire/plasma/explode. What does this mean? Is the damage normale dealt by a laser weapon reduced by the number mentioned behind laser in the inventory screen?

I really cant get through this... :(

Thank you for your help! :)
 
Armor Class alters the chance of being hit, Damage Resistance and Damage Threshold reduce the damage when you get hit.
 
Here's a longer explanation, c/p from the game manual, might help you figure out how combat in Fallout actually works:

First, the Armor Class (AC)
Armor Class - This is the chance that the armor will force the attack to miss, usually by deflecting the shot. The higher the Armor Class (AC), the better the armor. The AC acts as a negative modifier on the attackers chance to hit.
Example: A ganger is wearing Leather armor, which is AC15. A desert ranger has a to hit chance of 65%, after all other modifiers. The chance to hit the target is only 50%.

Then there's the Damage Threshold (DT)
Damage Threshold - If a character in armor is hit, then the first thing armor can do is block the damage. Damage Threshold (DT) is subtracted from the initial amount of damage (what the target would take if it weren’t for the armor.) Example: The desert ranger hits the ganger from the above example. The attack does 20 points of damage. Owie! The DT of Leather armor is 4. The first four points of the rangers attack is stopped cold, leaving only 16 points of damage.

And finally, Damage Resistance (DR)
Damage Resistance - The armor can also absorb the energy of the attack and spread it out over a larger area, reducing the damage proportionally. Damage Resistance (DR) is the percentage of damage, after the DT, that the attack is reduced by. Example: The ganger is in hurt shape. Fortunately, Leather armor has a DR of 20%, which reduces the 16 points of damage to 13 points. Here’s the math: 16 - (16 x .2 = 3.2 (round down to 3)) = 13. The Leather armor stopped a little over a third of the total damage.
 
Sorry for posting in a wrong forum ;)

Thank you very much for the answers. Everything is clearer now :)
 
Remember also that Armor doesn't always work. If an enemy scores a critical hit on you, there's a chance it could bypass the armor and hit you as if you weren't wearing any armor at all. Kind of a "chink in the armor" sort of thing. The good news is that it applies to their armor too.
 
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